The impact of COVID-19 on primary care accessibility and the role of telehealth for patients with chronic conditions

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to quantify how long patients took to complete their rescheduled primary care appointment pre-pandemic (2019) and during an initial pandemic period (2020). In doing so, the study evaluates telehealth's role in helping primary care patients – particularly in patients with chronic conditions – withstand COVID's significant disruption in care. METHODS: Cancelled and completed primary care appointments for adult patients were extracted from the beginning of the pandemic (March 1 to July 31, 2020) and a similar period pre-pandemic (March 1 to July 31, 2019). Days to the subsequent completed visit after cancellation (through June 30, 2021) and appointment modality (in-person, phone, video) were examined. Statistical testing was done to determine statistical significance, and a linear regression was run to control for effects of other study variables. RESULTS: Pre-pandemic patients with chronic conditions needed 52.3 days on average to reschedule their cancelled in-person appointment. During the early pandemic period, chronic condition patients who saw their provider in-person took on average 78.8 days. During the same pre-pandemic period, patients with chronic conditions had their average wait time decrease to 51.5 days when rescheduling via telehealth. These differences were similar for patients without chronic conditions. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows that telehealth created return to care timelines comparable to the pre-pandemic period which is especially important for patients with chronic conditions. PUBLIC INTEREST SUMMARY: Telehealth visits (i.e., talking with a physician via phone or video call) help patients continue to receive the medical care they need – especially during disruptive periods such as the COVID pandemic. Access to telehealth is the strongest predictor in determining how soon a patient will complete their reschedule primary care appointment. Because telehealth is so important, health care providers and systems need to continue to offer patients the ability to talk with their physician via phone or video call.